And we wonder why. . .
Africa cotton growers fret over trade talks setback
There are few things in the world that truly make me angry but one of those things is agricultural subsidies. I think farmers are cool, my grandpa grew up on a dairy farm, I have friends who live on farms, I wouldn’t mind one day living in a farming community. However, when it comes to government subsidy programs for farmers in the developed world, I’m sick and tired of how screwed up the system is. I was listening to a BBC radio report tonight while driving around and they were interviewing cotton farmers in the Ivory Coast who are turning increasingly from the cash crop of cotton to subsistence crops like maize or corn. The reason being is that in drought years (like this year) they aren’t able to yield a large enough crop of cotton to make a profit. Meanwhile here in the US there are cotton “farmers” who are paid billions of dollars in subsidies to ensure that they can “survive” from year to year. After interviewing the African farmers, the BBC host asked a US farming representative what his take on things were. His response? First off, he said that the fact the African farmers were changing over to corn was a sign that they had the freedom to choose which crops they wanted to grow so if cotton doesn’t work out then maybe they should try something else. He went on to defend cotton subsidies saying that it’s not just cotton but all the staple crops in the US are subsidized so it is hardly fair to single out cotton. The arrogance of this high priced lobbyist hack made me want to puke. It drives me crazy when people sit up in their ivory tower and criticize those who just want to scrape together enough of a living to send their kids to school. And we wonder why the US is so unpopular in the developing world. . .
